If one has to go by what American Consumer Institute's recent research tells us about cyberattacks, routers are one of the most vulnerable devices that might compromise our internet security, leading to increasing identity theft, malicious activity, fraud and espionage among others. Hackers may compromise office and personal routers, and steal information from network traffic.
The research conducted by American Consumer Institute involved 186 devices from 14 manufacturers. Out of 186, 155 devices, or approximately 83 percent, were found to have vulnerabilities to potential cyberattacks in the router's software. What is more alarming is that, the research found, an average of 172 vulnerabilities exist in our Wi-Fi routers.
Not all the vulnerabilities are equally bad, and the National Vulnerability Database includes scores for each of them and flags them either as "Low", "Medium", "High", or "Critical" to reflect the risk severity. Within the American Consumer Institute research sample, 28 percent of the vulnerabilities were considered "High-risk" or "Critical". High-risk vulnerabilities don't require a skilled hacker to compromise the consumer's system. However, unlike the "Critical" vulnerabilities, "High-risk" vulnerabilities don't compromise the entire system. According to the American Consumer Institute's research, on average, a router has 12 "Critical" vulnerabilities, 36 "High-risk" vulnerabilities, 103 "Medium-risk" vulnerabilities, and 21 "Low-risk" vulnerabilities, respectively. Part of the responsibility lies in the consumers' hands as it's their prerogative to use any software updates to patch known vulnerabilities in the router. An average consumer may not even worry of updating router software. Unfortunately, router-makers also do not offer a user-friendly way to update router software.
As the IoT is creating exciting opportunities for innovation and integrating our ways of life like never before, the cybersecurity is taking front and center of our national security. Symantec has reported an alarming 600 percent increase in IoT-related cyberattacks, with router accounting for 33.6 percent. This threat is likely to grow in scale and frequency over time. To effectively combat this threat, we need a two-pronged defense. A deep-rooted awareness among consumers to take the cybersecurity seriously, including the ones exposed by as commonly and widely used device as router. On the manufacturers part, they need to show more commitment in terms of resources and funding to make devices with router software updates as seamless as possible, including identifying any "High-risk" or "Critical" vulnerabilities and auto-patching those vulnerabilities to provide consumers peace of mind and sense of cybersecurity they deserve in the rapidly integrated world.
The research conducted by American Consumer Institute involved 186 devices from 14 manufacturers. Out of 186, 155 devices, or approximately 83 percent, were found to have vulnerabilities to potential cyberattacks in the router's software. What is more alarming is that, the research found, an average of 172 vulnerabilities exist in our Wi-Fi routers.
Not all the vulnerabilities are equally bad, and the National Vulnerability Database includes scores for each of them and flags them either as "Low", "Medium", "High", or "Critical" to reflect the risk severity. Within the American Consumer Institute research sample, 28 percent of the vulnerabilities were considered "High-risk" or "Critical". High-risk vulnerabilities don't require a skilled hacker to compromise the consumer's system. However, unlike the "Critical" vulnerabilities, "High-risk" vulnerabilities don't compromise the entire system. According to the American Consumer Institute's research, on average, a router has 12 "Critical" vulnerabilities, 36 "High-risk" vulnerabilities, 103 "Medium-risk" vulnerabilities, and 21 "Low-risk" vulnerabilities, respectively. Part of the responsibility lies in the consumers' hands as it's their prerogative to use any software updates to patch known vulnerabilities in the router. An average consumer may not even worry of updating router software. Unfortunately, router-makers also do not offer a user-friendly way to update router software.
As the IoT is creating exciting opportunities for innovation and integrating our ways of life like never before, the cybersecurity is taking front and center of our national security. Symantec has reported an alarming 600 percent increase in IoT-related cyberattacks, with router accounting for 33.6 percent. This threat is likely to grow in scale and frequency over time. To effectively combat this threat, we need a two-pronged defense. A deep-rooted awareness among consumers to take the cybersecurity seriously, including the ones exposed by as commonly and widely used device as router. On the manufacturers part, they need to show more commitment in terms of resources and funding to make devices with router software updates as seamless as possible, including identifying any "High-risk" or "Critical" vulnerabilities and auto-patching those vulnerabilities to provide consumers peace of mind and sense of cybersecurity they deserve in the rapidly integrated world.
